LanzaTech works with India to develop low-carbon fuels from waste CO2

This unique application of LanzaTech's gas fermentation technology will enable a new supply of biofuels, according to the company, creating economic growth and reducing CO2 emissions across India.

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US-based LanzaTech has partnered with the Centre for
Advanced Bio-Energy, a joint venture between
state-controlled Indian Oil and the India government's
Department for Biotechnology (DBT), to create a novel process
for the direct production of low-carbon fuels from industrial
carbon dioxide (CO2)
emissions.

This unique application of LanzaTech's gas fermentation technology will enable a new supply
of biofuels, according to the
company, creating economic growth and reducing CO2 emissions across India.

Project officials say they plan to
leverage each other's expertise to create a new process for the
direct conversion of waste CO2 into "drop-in" fuels through an
acetates-to-lipids pathway.

To that end, LanzaTech has developed gas fermentation technology that can directly convert
waste CO2 gases into acetates. Meanwhile, the Centre for
Advanced Bio-Energy is working to increase the production yield
of lipids (oils) by "feeding" acetates to microalgae. The
resulting oils can then be refined into fuels using a range of
existing processing technologies.

"India has made it a national
priority to balance its meteoric economic growth with environmental and social sustainability," said Jennifer
Holmgren, CEO of LanzaTech.

"By converting India's industrial waste CO2 emissions into low carbon fuels and chemicals,
LanzaTech and the Centre can reduce overall emissions while
creating a sustainable, domestic supply of transportation
fuels. We look forward to extending our technology platform and
our existing partnerships in India as we work with the team at
the Centre on this initiative."

LanzaTech has already been working with Indian Oil to develop a
domestic ethanol supply chain by leveraging
LanzaTech's technology with a range of
carbon-containing waste streams widely available in India,
including industrial carbon monoxide (CO) emissions from steel plants.

"Any developments leading to useful conversion of carbon dioxide are most desirable,"
said Dr. R K Malhotra, director of R&D at Indian Oil
and head of the DBT-IOC Centre.

India is projected to become the world's
second largest steel producer by 2015, providing a significant
opportunity to produce biofuels. LanzaTech said it
estimates that hundreds of millions of gallons of ethanol could be produced annually
by utilizing waste CO2 from steel mills.

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